Bethesda has been called many things over the course of this generation. Some have called them one of the best developers out there. Others have had much, much less jovial comments of them. Either way, they will have certainly left their mark this generation, for better or worse.

Bethesda's hatred mostly comes from the Playstation 3 and PC camps. Especially the Playstation 3. And with good reason. The PS3 and PC crowds have been treated like second class citizens by them. We can't blame them for brokering timed exclusive deals with Microsoft. This is a business after all and if Microsoft is willing to constantly shell out the extra cash, so be it. However, the real problem comes from their lazy work in regard to the PS3 and PC.

When you take a look at Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, and Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, one thing becomes clear. Bethesda only cares about their xbox audience. When you look at how poorly the PS3 versions of the same games were developed, you get a clearer picture of where Bethesda's loyalty lies. And if that wasn't bad enough, the PC, where they got their start gets treated with the same lack of care the PS3 does. But at least with the PC, the communities themselves can create mods to mitigate Bethesda's shortcomings.

And there is no excuse for this behavior. The excuse of "it's too difficult to develop for" has long flew away. So by the time of say Skyrim's development on the PS3, they should have known EXACTLY what they were dealing with. Yet the somehow still managed to mess up the PS3 version of the game. Instead of giving the PS3 owners the Dawnguard and Hearthfire DLC for Skyrim, the PS3 fans were treated with various excuses as to why they can't get the job done.

Now, they've recently stated how their next DLC for the game, Dragonborn would be ready for both the PC and the PS3. They've gone on record to say how this next DLC pack is one of their most ambitious yet. Which begs the question, how is it they can do something like this for the game yet they still don't have Dawnguard or Heartfire up and running on the system?

One thing that is important for any company isn't how you start the generation, it's how you leave it. With the next set of home systems on the way soon, Playstation owners will have a very bad taste in their mouths when it comes to Bethesda. And in turn, that could really hurt at least a third of their revenue. As gamers become more and more aware of how company's treat them (just look at the backlash Capcom has been getting), Bethesda better find some way to make amends to the PS3 and PC audiences respectively. Because if they don't, with the way development costs keep rising, there is no guarantee they'll be able to survive on Microsoft's coin alone.

Bethy can go $#@! itself. I will play its games, but will buy them 2nd hand. We will see next gen...I will give them another chance if Sony brings out tech that isn't an asshole to code for.

I love love their games. Fallout 3 is a major standout for me this generation. But yeah... the technical issues suck. I put over 100 hours in all of their current gen games on PS3 and only had a few gripes, while others have put in 10h and had many. There is definitely something funky going on.

Interesting read though. It does make me wonder about the timed exclusivity of the DLC packs that were on Xbox first, for Skyrim AND the Fallouts. Maybe the money Microsoft threw their way also made that version 'superior'

F Bethesda. I hate to say this but I really do think MS is shoveling money their way and Bethesda is keeping it all on the down low to try to save face. We should have seen all this coming with Fallout 3. They will never get another penny from me, and that includes any game that has Bethesda logo plaster all over it.

I bought Skyrim for my PS3 originally, but after only 2 hours I became so irritated I sold it and re-bought the game for my 360. Amazing the difference in performance, which all comes down to lazy developers and is truly unnecessary.

im sick of the excuse and probably lie that the ps3 is hard to work with when other devs have been sucessful with the ps3. We have seen amazing games come from the ps3 early on multiplatform games were a nighmare but its damn near 2013 now and to still cling to this excuse is unacceptable. Ive given up on valve now looks like bethesda will get the axe too. On PC you got joe smoe filling in the gaps come on wth is going on at bethesda.

Last edited by hood; 12-04-2012 at 12:54.

"I think all those developers who are saying, "We donít want to do a PS3 game," or "Itís really difficult to do it," should shut up and make their games. If you have time to complain about it, then you should be spending your time working on getting the most from the hardware."

The make enough money nowadays, and that will just increase going into the next-gen.

nowadays good news is short lived and bad news lasts forever. With pennies being pinched as hard as they are nowadays next gen will be a problem for them.

"I think all those developers who are saying, "We donít want to do a PS3 game," or "Itís really difficult to do it," should shut up and make their games. If you have time to complain about it, then you should be spending your time working on getting the most from the hardware."

To be honest, I'm not upset and here are the reasons. After they patched the skyrim PS3 version from the slowdowns, that fixed it for me but I bought the game not for the DLC but for the game itself. Bethesda in my opinion doesn't usually have good DLC, they were also pretty late with the DLC from when skyrim launched. to me, the game itself is worth the purchase.

With all that being said, a lot of companies don't understand business in general. Lots of businesses while they run on instant cash they also run on Volume in terms of profit. Also, the launch for a game is everything. Because of Bethesdas incompetence with the launch of skyrim on the PS3, they most likely lost what could have been a solid fanbase (loyal consumers). the point is, of bethesda growing even more, if Microsoft did pay them and if they took the money, Bethesda would honestly be a stupid company because of those actions they lost some loyal followers. It's really a shame. smh

I bet it won't be. As long as they do well on the 360, they don't care how the PS3 is treated. That'll be the same next gen.

If microsoft is doing well then maybe id agree but MS has been bleeding the life out of the 360 and doing anything they can to make a quick buck. It's popular now to talk about how bad sony is doing but MS is losing money in the cellphone market pc market and their new tablet will soon become the next zune. If Bethesda is making enough money which no one ever is why havent they just completely given up on pc and ps3 platforms. Next gen the new xbox could cause them headaches you never know which way things will go but you better believe that your reputation is critical nowadays. A tweet here a FB post there various articles on the net a quick google search is all thats needed to bring up the bad news. We live in a world now where information is streamlined everything is at our finger tips. Neither of us work for bethesda so we both have no idea of what they consider valuable but alienating potential customers is bad news. The worst part being its not that they arent making money from the ps3 and pc but their job is too hard.

Last edited by hood; 12-04-2012 at 14:11.

"I think all those developers who are saying, "We donít want to do a PS3 game," or "Itís really difficult to do it," should shut up and make their games. If you have time to complain about it, then you should be spending your time working on getting the most from the hardware."

If microsoft is doing well then maybe id agree but MS has been bleeding the life out of the 360 and doing anything they can to make a quick buck. It's popular now to talk about how bad sony is doing but MS is losing money in the cellphone market pc market and their new tablet will soon become the next zune. If Bethesda is making enough money which no one ever is why havent they just completely given up on pc and ps3 platforms. Next gen the new xbox could cause them headaches you never know which way things will go but you better believe that your reputation is critical nowadays. A tweet here a FB post there various articles on the net a quick google search is all thats needed to bring up the bad news. We live in a world now where information is streamlined everything is at our finger tips. Neither of us work for bethesda so we both have no idea of what they consider valuable but alienating potential customers is bad news. The worst part being its not that they arent making money from the ps3 and pc but their job is too hard.

The only thing I care about Bethesda for next gen is that they get their $#@! together for their games, they come up with amazing games but they're not able to fully deliver with a quality and playable game, it's ok to have a bugs but not the kind Bethesda has on most games.

Bethesda is a subsidiary of zenimax. Zenimax is a business meant to make money. The PS3 has non-standard hardware and as such is more expensive to port stuff to. You're nuts if you think Bethesda will be allowed unlimited time to port the games to the PS3 so they can equal the 360 version. When you think of the scope of these games it's amazing that they can port them at all. PS4 will resolve these issues.

I'm not sure why the author is freaking out over the PC version. Bethesda crafted mod tools and distributed it- and integrated it with SteamWorks. They released a high def texture pack for free. The PC version has an at least decent selection of graphical options.

I mean the performance vis a vis other PC titles isn't spectacular but its the gamebryo engine after all.

It was the fastest selling title ever on STEAM, as I recall. All this and its at a lower price thanks to a lack of high royalties demanded by the console makers.

it has everything to do with what your talking about. You said bethesda was making enough money off the 360 and because of this they wont have a problem next gen. this thread is about whether or not their actions this gen will cause a problem for them next gen you say no. I say yes and give my reasons why your answer is they are making enough money off the 360. Theres nothing else no substance to what you had to say im sorry if you cant connect the dots. Ms or Sony may not be in the postition to play favorites with devs on dlc and buying out devs to secure dlc for a undiscloused amount of time. The next xbox could fall flat on its face just as well s the next playstation can. There isnt any company in the gaming industry thats making enough money to say you know what we arent gonna pay this market any attention.

"I think all those developers who are saying, "We donít want to do a PS3 game," or "Itís really difficult to do it," should shut up and make their games. If you have time to complain about it, then you should be spending your time working on getting the most from the hardware."

I'm not sure why the author is freaking out over the PC version. Bethesda crafted mod tools and distributed it- and integrated it with SteamWorks. They released a high def texture pack for free. The PC version has an at least decent selection of graphical options.

I mean the performance vis a vis other PC titles isn't spectacular but its the gamebryo engine after all.

It was the fastest selling title ever on STEAM, as I recall. All this and its at a lower price thanks to a lack of high royalties demanded by the console makers.

are you sure its the Gamebryo engine? its had some serious work done to it if it is...

Bethesda is a subsidiary of zenimax. Zenimax is a business meant to make money. The PS3 has non-standard hardware and as such is more expensive to port stuff to. You're nuts if you think Bethesda will be allowed unlimited time to port the games to the PS3 so they can equal the 360 version. When you think of the scope of these games it's amazing that they can port them at all. PS4 will resolve these issues.

the launch for the PC was crappy too, so you can't really make excuses for that. this arguement right now about PS3 is pretty old and most developers have overcome it's hurdles. The skyrim engine was mainly optimized for the Xbox360, they didn't optimize it enough for the PS3 obviously. The Problem the PS3 version had there is honestly no good excuse from it and saying "to port it to the PS3 is more expensive" so therefor your basically saying they just half assed it out the door for the PS3. again, Business profit and volume, volume is making money farther down the road which isn't going to happen on the PS3 version. they lost potential future DLC sales, they also made people turn away from them, again Volume, future profits. it's so important for game developers to create a loyal and solid fanbase.

I would say to any other developer out there, don't do what Bethesda is doing unless you want your business to fall.

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